Save You
by xJanzx
Summary: Ronnie/Jack mini fic that begins where Monday night's episode of EE left off.
1. Chapter 1

**Save You**

"That's my daughter! That's my DAUGHTER!" Phil screamed, throwing his crutches to the floor and grasping Ronnie's arms tightly. "Who do you think you are, eh?! EH?! Who do you think you are?!" He yelled into her face, his own turning a bright shade of red.

"She's better off without you," Ronnie replied, her voice steely and unperturbed.

Phil scoffed angrily. "Like Danielle was without you?"

There was a shift in the atmosphere of the pub, an almost audible wince.

"Don't you dare-" Ronnie began, twisting her arms out of her cousin's reach, but Phil cut her off.

"Well go on, deny it. She came here lookin' for yer and a minute after she told yer, she was dead! You **threw** her outta here and she died."

"Stop talking about her!"

"That was your doing, not mine. So tell me where my daughter is! TELL ME!" Phil lunged forward, pinning Ronnie's body against the bar.

"Dad!"

"Get your hands off her!"

Everyone turned to see Jack grip hold of Phil and force him away from Ronnie before the attention was focused solely on the little girl that stood in the doorway of the Vic, an alarmed expression on her face.

"Louise," Phil called out, gruffly. He limped over to his daughter, the little girl that he hadn't seen for so many years, the little girl his heart longed for. But she backed away, cowering away from him, instead ducking beneath his outstretched arms and rushing to Ronnie's side. "Louise?" Her dad questioned, visibly upset.

"She took care of me," Louise stated simply, her fingers seeking out Ronnie's hand and squeezing it gently. She looked up to Ronnie's surprised face and gave her a weak smile. Ronnie just looked back at her, stunned.

"Right, that's it – everyone upstairs, we're sortin' this out," Peggy ordered, taking charge of the situation before she began to herd the Mitchell's up the flat. "Er, where do you think you're going?" She asked, as Jack began to follow Ronnie and Louise, who was still holding Ronnie's hand, through to the back of the bar.

"You think I'm leaving 'er with you lot?" A derisive sneer passed Jack's lips. Ronnie turned back, her eyes locking with his, a surprised look crossing her face for a moment. Why was she surprised? She knew he'd always be there for her.

"This is _family_ business-"

"It always is with the Mitchells, ain't it?"

"Oh Auntie Peg, just leave it, alright? We've got bigger fish to fry!" Roxy exclaimed, her ice blue eyes staring into her sister's.

"Have you got something to say, Roxy?"

"Oh, I have plenty to say-"

"Girls! Upstairs, NOW!"

Each member of the Mitchell clan trudged up the stairs before convening in the living room. Ben and Louise had been put in the kitchen with Danny, so the adults could engage in a slanging match. "What right do you have to send my daughter away, eh? Eh?" Phil shouted, his hands itching to hit something.

"You just proved the reason why I did it. You're a violent bully and she deserves better than that!"

Roxy scoffed. "Oh yeah, Saint Bleeding Veronica – the protector of the innocent children!"

Ronnie eyes flashed with an incomprehensible emotion. "Roxy, [i]_shut up_[/i]!"

"Why? Why should I, eh?" Roxy challenged, stalking closer to Ronnie like a cat circling its prey. "You're sick in the head, d'you know that? You'll never be satisfied, will you? You've always got to break up a family – Joel's, Phil's, min-"

"Roxy! I am warning you!" Ronnie shouted into her sister's face, cutting her off mid sentence. Ronnie's stomach churned with a strange feeling, it was almost like terror. She could feel her heart hammering in her chest and the bile rising at the back of her throat.

"Or what? What're you gonna do, Veronica? Give me another one of these?!" Roxy hissed, a manicured fingernail pointing to the scar in her chin.

"If it'll get you to shut up, then yeah." Her words were low, soft even but the threat hung in the air like a klaxon of dead, festering flesh.

"Oh, I'd like to see you try-"

Ronnie grabbed a fistful of Roxy's blonde hair, her free hand clamping around Roxy's chin, forcing her back against the wall of the living room. She could hear an uproar of voices sweeping around her, could feel a pair of strong arms trying to pull her away from her sister, but she held steadfastly, refusing to let go.

"Get off me!" Roxy yelled, kicking out against her sister's grip until Jack finally managed to wrestle Ronnie away from her. "You really are a psycho, aren't you?"

"Roxy – would you just shut up?!" Jack demanded, his arm secured around Ronnie's waist in an attempt to stop her from lunging at Roxy once more.

"NO!" Roxy hollered. "Because we're all finally seeing you for who you are, aren't we Ronnie? You're just a lying, twisted, sick _freak_. What, just because your daughter died, you have to keep **his** away?!" She screamed, flinging her arm out in Phil's direction.

"Roxy, okay, that's enough!" Jack exclaimed, his grip still tight around Ronnie. He had felt her body become rigid as Roxy's words seeped through the room like toxic waste.

"No, no – I don't think it is," Peggy told him. Ronnie's eyes swivelled to meet her aunts, the betrayal evident in her face. "That's my granddaughter," was the only answer Ronnie received.

"Of course," Ronnie muttered. "Of course. Yeah, right, because no matter how many times I bail any of you out, it doesn't matter because my name's not Grant or Phil or Sam. No." She scoffed. "Shoulda known, really." Her arms pushed down upon Jack's until he finally relented and released his grip on her. "So much for family, eh?"

"Well, what do you expect, Veronica?" Roxy spat. "We all know you're a liar now, so how many other lies have you told, eh?"

"Roxy-"

"You lied to Joel, to Jack, to Phil – so how many other people have you lied to, how many other lies have you told."

"I'm leaving," Ronnie announced, heading towards the door. But Roxy blocked her exit. Her hands were on her hips, her eyes boring through her sister's skin, trying to reveal every part of Ronnie that nobody had been before.

"So go on, Ronnie – why don't you tell everyone what you told me, eh? Why won't you tell everyone what sick, little lies you've been spouting? Go on, show everyone who you really are! GO ON!"

"Screw you, Roxanne," Ronnie stated, her eyes looking directly into Roxy's and not flinching. She wasn't intimidated of Roxy, she wasn't scared of her. She was terrified of what Roxy knew. Why had she told her? Why, after all these years, had she let go of the one secret that she had promised to never speak aloud? Because she had stupidly thought her sister would believe her.

An electric tension filled the air between the two sisters and all Phil, Peggy and Jack could do was watch the argument unfold. It was obvious they were no longer talking about Louise, no this was something else. Something so deep rooted that the sisters couldn't even voice.

"Tell them!" Roxy demanded, her arms jutting out and her fingers closing around Ronnie's. "Tell them the lies you told me about dad!"

Jack frowned, his brows creasing into furrows. What had Archie got to do with this?

"I'm not having this conversation," Ronnie hissed from between her clenched teeth.

"See if they believe your _twisted_ lies about him. You make me sick, d'you know that? Your lies turn my stomach and all I want to do is claw you out of my life. It's like you've infected me with your disease, infected me with your anger and lies and all I can do is stay as far away as possible from you. Why don't you just leave, Ronnie? Just go, nobody's gonna miss you here-"

"Roxy, that's enough!" Jack interjected, but she was no longer listening, no longer aware of the other three people in the room, her entire focus upon her sister.

"Our dad, _my_ dad was a good dad-"

Ronnie scoffed, the derision dripping from her exhaled breath. "Oh yeah, of course he was. Because all good dads force adoptions, lie about their granddaughter being dead, hurt their children, kick out his entire family, including his _infant_ granddaughter, out onto the streets on Christmas Eve. Oh yeah, that just screams 'good dad'-"

"How **dare** you?! He is _dead_!"

"Good."

Roxy's hand shot out and slammed down on Ronnie's left cheek. Ronnie winced from the pain that filtered through her face, but she didn't move her eyes away from Roxy's. Jack instantly moved to Ronnie's side, wanting to move her away from Roxy, but she put up a hand, signalling for him to stop. She wasn't done.

"He deserved to die. He deserved to die a long time ago . . . and you know it."

Ronnie turned away, about to walk out of the living room, but Roxy's voice dragged her back into the confrontation.

"Why?" Roxy called out after her sister. "Because he raped you?"

"What?!" Both Phil and Peggy broke their silence at the same moment. Peggy's question coming out in a gasp, as though the wind had been knocked out of her.

Jack said nothing, instead his eyes locked on Ronnie. He could see her hands tremble slightly, seeking out the doorframe, something to hold onto. He wanted to walk towards her, to give her his hand to grab hold of, but he didn't. He couldn't move. He could just watch her.

The vomit swirled in the pit of Jack's stomach, rising up and pushing against the back of his throat. He wanted to throw up, to run to the bathroom and empty the contents of his stomach into the porcelain bowl. But what good would that do? How would that help Ronnie?

Because he knew she was telling the truth.

He knew what Archie had done to her.

He believed her.

Archie's obsession with her, his lies, his actions. They all revolved around Ronnie. Everything made sense now.

_Except how do you make sense of something like that?_

"Oh, what you didn't know?" Roxy asked, sarcastically. "Apparently our dad raped her when she was fourteen. Actually, was it fourteen, Ron? I'm a little sketchy on the details, seeing as it _didn't happen_!" She hollered at her sister's back.

But Ronnie didn't answer. She didn't even turn around. She couldn't. She couldn't look into their faces and see their thoughts reflected in their eyes. She couldn't turn around, just in case they didn't believe her either.

Jack's eyes stared into the back of Ronnie's form, willing her to realise that he believed her, that she could trust him to believe her.

"See? See what I mean? You're just a sick, twisted little girl, Veronica. You couldn't stand knowing that he gave everything to me, that he loved _me_. You couldn't **stand** it, could you? You couldn't stand it and you were jealous so you tried to turn me against him." The fury built up in Roxy with every word that passed her lips, it was as though an inferno had swept up inside her and was ready to pour forth. "Look at me!" She screamed, rushing forwards and forcing Ronnie to look at her. "You were so jealous, you had to make up a sick, _sick_ lie. But it didn't work, did it Ron, eh? It didn't work because I know you're lying, I know it didn't happen."

"Yes, it did."


	2. Chapter 2

The three whispered words swirled around the room, weaving a dark chamber around it's inhabitants. Ronnie might as well have shouted them, screamed them into the core of the four adults listening. The shocked silence that followed was deafening, Ronnie could feel it pressing against her head, squeezing and squeezing until she felt her skull would be crushed under the pressure.

Everything had shifted beneath her feet, the earth was crumbling and she was free falling into a pit of darkness. Ronnie could feel her arms flailing, desperately trying to grab hold of something solid, something strong to keep her from falling more.

But she couldn't.

Because there was nothing to hold onto.

"Stop – lying," Roxy hissed, taking a step closer to Ronnie so the sisters were face to face.

Ronnie looked back into the ice blue eyes of her younger sister, searching for the girl she had known for the past thirty years. Where had she gone? Where was the little girl that had crept into her bed every night for two years and just held Ronnie as she wept her heart out? Where was she? And what had happened to her?

Jack watched Ronnie, his eyes searching for signs of . . . something. To everyone else, it looked as though Ronnie had slipped her 'Ice Queen' mask back on, but to him . . . he could see her terror and her anguish. He could see the way her soul shook with uncertainty, unsure of what the next moment would hold. And most of all, he could see her despair. Because now everyone knew.

Everyone knew what she had tried so hard to keep hidden.

"_What_ are you staring at?"

"Roxy! Just leave it, yeah?!" Jack demanded, finally finding his voice. He wanted to take Ronnie out of the room, wanted to take her out and take her away somewhere. Somewhere far away. _Oh god, darling – why didn't you tell me? I would've . . . I would've . . ._

What? What would he have done?

_The minute he stepped back onto the Square, I would have killed him._

That's what Jack would have done.

Roxy swivelled around, turning to face Jack.

"No! NO! I wanna hear her say it. If she keeps spouting this crap, I want to hear it from her. From her mouth, in her words!" She exclaimed, rounding on her sister once again. "Go on, Veronica. Go on! Tell me! TELL ME!" Roxy screamed, strands of her hair flying about her face.

Ronnie watched her sister's face for a moment before taking a step forward, a step closer to her. Roxy instinctively took a step backwards. Ronnie matched her movement, the physical distance between the two now miniscule, the emotional a gulf.

Ronnie's heartbeat pounded in her ears, she could feel the rush of blood coursing through her. Her body was telling her to run. Her mind was telling her to run.

But she was rooted to the spot.

"Do you want to know?" Ronnie whispered, her voice soft, but an undercurrent of rage dripped from it. "Do you really want to know . . . what he did?" She leant closer, her breath warming Roxy's cheek. "DO YOU?!" Ronnie shouted, her scream ripping through Roxy's mind, shredding each and every one of her thoughts.

Roxy flinched, turning her face away from Ronnie, unable to bear the intensity of her sister's gaze or the ferocity of her voice. A small whimper formed in her throat, but Roxy bit it back, not allowing Ronnie to have the satisfaction of knowing that she had gotten to her.

"I didn't think so," Ronnie stated, her voice dropping back to a whisper.


	3. Chapter 3

Ronnie turned her head, her eyes scanning the room and inadvertently falling on the faces of her cousin and aunt. They looked back at her, shell shocked by the revelation. Peggy opened her mouth, about to say something, but stopped, before turning her glance away.

She didn't believe her either.

_She was his wife. Why would she believe me?_

Ronnie's fingers hummed with energy, the muscles in her arms and legs pumping with blood. Within the space of a millisecond, she had shot out of the suffocating room, away from the looks of doubt and disgust, the unspoken alliance that had formed between the three people she had thought she had trust. An alliance against her.

"Ronnie!" Jack called after her, his feet pounding against the pavement as he followed her path down the alleyway and across the dark Square. His breaths came in gasps, as the cold night air hit his lungs. "Ronnie!" He called out once again, his hand finally clasping her slender wrist. "Stop, Ron. Stop running."

Ronnie shook her head, the tears streaming down her face.

"It's okay, it's okay," Jack told her, pulling Ronnie closer and curling her into his body, keeping her safe in his arms. "It's okay, it's okay," he murmured, stroking her hair as he felt the tears well in his eyes. "I promise you, it's okay now. I'm here. It's okay, I promise you, Ronnie. I promise, I promise. It's okay, it's okay."

Ronnie so desperately wanted to give in to the comfort of his embrace, and for a fleeting moment she managed it. She managed to forget the anguish of the last twenty minutes, to forget the agony that had tainted her life and everything she had been through. But the moment wouldn't freeze, it wouldn't allow her to have peace for a little bit longer, to find solace in her lover's arms for a little while longer.

She pulled away from him, shaking her head. More tears spilled from her eyelids, marring the delicate beauty of her porcelain skin, the tear tracks glistening against the moon's rays. Jack reached out his hands, cupping Ronnie's face and using the pads of his thumbs to wipe the droplets away. But it didn't help, as soon as he had finished, more tears took their place.

"They don't believe me," Ronnie whispered, her voice cracking with emotion. The walls of sorrow lined her throat, restricting her breath, so with each rattling intake, it felt as though her lungs were on fire.

Everything was spinning out of control. Her entire world was falling apart. They knew. They knew. Roxy had told them. They knew and they didn't believe her.

"They don't believe me-"

"Shh, shh," Jack hushed, placing his palms on either side of Ronnie's face, forcing her to look him in the eyes. "_I_ believe you, Ronnie. I believe you and I am going to make this better-"

"How, Jack?! How can you make this better?" She demanded, the grief welling up in her chest as the wounds of her misery were slashed open once more, the blood pooling on the floor beneath her.

"I'm taking you away from here, Ron. We're leaving and you ain't coming back-"

"No, Jack-" Ronnie began, shaking her head.

"No!" He insisted, refusing to accept her objections. They were doing this, he was doing this for her. "I am taking you away from here and you are leaving this place behind. We're going to a place where nobody knows us and we are going to be a family, Ronnie. We are leaving this place and these people behind and I, I will take care of you. And we are going to get married, Ron and we're gonna have four babies and I'll even build a white picket fence around our house, if that's what you want. Okay?"

"Married?" She asked, her voice hushed, almost as though he had taken her breath away with his words.

Jack nodded his head. "Yeah, married. I've had that engagement ring burning a hole in my pocket for a year now and it deserves to be put back on the finger that it was made for. I love you, Ronnie. I love you and I can't bear to see you hurting anymore, so we're gonna leave, okay?"

Ronnie stayed silent, saying nothing. But a few minutes later, in the darkness, Jack saw her nod.

"Okay." She let out a deep breath, running her hands through her blonde hair. Ronnie's hands lingered at her throat, a panic stricken expression crossing her face. "My locket, wh-where is it?" She frantically looked around at the ground, trying to find the glint of metal in the half moonlight. "Whe-where is it, Jack?"

"It's okay, Ron, shh, okay, shh. It's probably just across the Square, we'll retrace our-"

"Oh god. It fell off . . . it's back there," Ronnie muttered, her eyes looking up to the red building she had just fled from. Never before had it seemed so intimidating, so unwelcoming. She used to call it 'home', but she knew now that it had never been that for her. It was the gingerbread house, so warm and inviting, but within its walls the secrets and deceit were rife and if you tried to escape, it would always pull you back.

Isn't that what had happened to her? How many times had she moved out? How many times had she left? But she kept coming back . . . . why?

Ronnie broke out into a sprint, her reflexes too fast for Jack to register for a moment. He ran after her for the second time that night, running through the gardens and across the Square once again. Back to the Vic.

Except Ronnie didn't manage to cross that road.

Jack heard the deafening sound of screeching tires before a dull thud. The sound was muffled, like he'd suddenly been plunged underwater, everything was happening at half the speed. His voice sounded strange, like it didn't belong to him.

"Ronnie!" Jack yelled, his body rushing to her side. "Oh god, Ronnie, darling, oh god, oh god," he cried, his shaking hands trying to grasp hold of her bloody torso.

"I didn't- I didn't see her," stammered the young boy behind the steering wheel of the car.

"Call an ambulance!" Jack screamed.

"Jack?" Ronnie spoke his name, confused and dazed by what had happened.

"I'm here, Ron, I'm right here."

"Tell me again," she whispered, her breaths rattling in her chest. "Tell me about our wedding and our babies." Her voice was so weak, it was almost inaudible.

Jack focused every ounce of concentration on willing her to keep breathing. He was oblivious to everything around him, the people milling around them, forming a crowd. In the distance, he could hear sirens, but they seemed too far away to be linked to him or Ronnie.

"I love you, Ronnie and we're going to get married in Italy, a small wedding, just us and a few others. Everyone important. And our little girl, she'll walk down the aisle before you, throwing petals about and our son, our son, he'll hold your hand and he'll lead you down the aisle to me. He'll give you away to me. And I will stand before you and say how much I love you, how I will never hurt you, how I will spend every day of my life making you happy because it makes me happy. I'll stand before you and tell you how you are my everything, that without you nothing makes sense and when I'm with you, you make me a better man. You make me fit in this world, you give me a place to fit into this world and that is right next to you. So please, Ron, please darling, I'm begging you, don't take that away from me. Don't leave me, darling, please, please Ronnie, don't," Jack begged her, holding onto her tightly, his tears splashing onto his suit jacket.

"Ronnie?!" Roxy screamed, running out of the pub and staring down at her sister, lying in the middle of the road, cradled in Jack's arms.

"Oh god," Phil muttered, wiping a hand over his face, the image of his cousin burned into his retina. "Mum, don't look. Get Rox inside, okay?"

"No! Ronnie! Ronnie!" Roxy fought against her cousin's hold and somehow managed to push Phil off of her before bolting to her sister's side.

With all her remaining strength, Ronnie lightly gripped one of Jack's hands and brought it to her stomach. "I promise I'll take care of her," she whispered, the sound so faint. "I'll take care of our little girl."

"No, no, no, no, don't close your eyes, Ron. Don't close 'em, the ambulance is coming and you're gonna be fine, both of you, you're gonna be fine and then we're gonna have that wedding in Italy, y'hear me? We're gonna have that wedding and that house with the picket fence, we're gonna have that. I promised you, didn't I? I promised I'd take care of you, take you away from here so we could have our family, I promised you," Jack sobbed, his heart breaking as shards of terror and agony embedded themselves within the torn muscle.

Ronnie eyelids grew heavy, but she did as she was instructed. She kept them open. For him. "I love you," she murmured, trying her hardest to concentrate on Jack's face. But her vision became blurry and Jack's face and voice started to get further and further away. Until all there was was darkness. "Danielle," Ronnie said aloud. The final words on her lips. Her daughter's name.

"No! RONNIE!" Jack screamed, his hands curling into the layers of her clothing and gripping hold of it tightly. "No, Ronnie, no. Please, darling, please, just open your eyes. Come on, Ron, just open them."

"Ronnie!" Roxy sobbed beside the two lovers, causing Jack to whip his head around to look at her.

"NO!" He shouted. "You did this, you did this. _All_ of you. Stay away from her."The fury rolled off of him in waves, his anger directed at the three people he knew were responsible for what had happened.

"She's my sister!" Roxy cried, her bottom lip trembling as the tears cascaded down her face, her hands reaching out for her sister.

"Don't **touch** her!" Jack bellowed, lifting Ronnie's lifeless body from the ground and holding it to his own. "Ronnie," he wept. "Please, darling, come back. Please. Please, Ronnie! Ronnie, wake up! Please!" Jack wept with wild abandonment, his entire body wracked with sobs, shuddering with the force of his grief. His soul felt as though it had been ripped from him and with every break he took someone was slicing through it with a knife. His heart lay on the ground by Ronnie's feet, still, unmoving, no longer beating.

No longer alive.

Just like her.

**THE END**


End file.
